How To: Adjust vertical spacing of text in an ArcMap layout

Summary

When adding text to a layout with the Draw toolbar in ArcMap, the spacing between lines of text can be adjusted with the leading value. This allows fitting larger amounts of text into a smaller area, or to distribute text over a larger area. The image below shows two lines of text with the default spacing.

Procedure

The steps below describe how to adjust the spacing between lines of text in an ArcMap layout.

Click the Select Elements tool from the Draw toolbar.

Double-click the desired text.

In the Properties dialog box, adjust the value for Leading. The larger the leading value, the larger the line spacing.

To enlarge the space between the stacked text, increase the value.

To reduce that space (from the default setting), reduce the value to negative numbers.

Note:
The default value of Leading for this text property is zero.

Click Apply and click OK. The spacing of the selected text is adjusted according to the leading value. The image below shows the two lines of text above with a leading value set to 15.